Business Environment Ministry working on draft bill for clearer regulations for business incubators, accelerators

First-time entrepreneurs may soon be able to benefit from a series of new facilities as the Business Environment Ministry is working on a draft law regarding business incubators and accelerators, which includes an extension of the period an organisation can call itself a business incubator from 10 years to an unlimited period, as well as providing more financing options based on any type of legal income source.

The draft law has been put up for public debate on the Ministry’s website.

“We’re planning to create a competitive business environment that can ensure more private investments and a favourable regulation framework that would avoid bureaucratic jams. We want to effectively contribute to the creation of an European network of business incubators, as a first step towards an European digital infrastructure that can be aligned with the highest current standards. This way we can facilitate the coordination of initiatives and platforms regarding the digitalization of industry at the national, regional and EU level, and, in parallel, allow Romanian businesses to grow on external markets,” said minister Stefan Radu Oprea.

The measures proposed by the bill include:

Simplifying the procedure to obtain the incubator title by eliminating the need for a feasibility study as well as other requirements that would make the procedure more difficult;
Expanding the validity of the incubator title from 10 years to an unlimited period;
Reducing the number of different types of incubators from 8 to 3 – mixed-portfolio, academic, sector-specific;
Providing more financing options for incubators based on any legal income source;
Redefining certain terms in the legislation (business incubator, business incubator resident);
Introducing new terms in order to make the regulation more precise, such as post-acceleration monitoring;
Creating a legislative framework for business accelerators;
Clarifying certain methodological aspects and those related to the interaction with public administration.